Nicholas Lezard's choice + Sport and leisure | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/series/nicholas-lezard-choice+sportandleisure
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Cricket: A Modern Anthology review – perfect for when rain stops&nbsp;playhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/13/cricket-modern-anthology-review-jonathan-agnew
An enormous amount of ground is covered in this moving, funny and upfront collection, edited by commentator Jonathan&nbsp;Agnew<p>As I write, I can hear cars driving through the rain. There is a chill in the&nbsp;air, and I'm contemplating turning the central heating on. It is the second week of May, and the cricket season has started. Cricket is a game that, even when it is not rained off, has enough longueurs to allow some reading time. Ideal for our purposes, then, is the anthology: and here is as solid an anthology as you could wish&nbsp;for.</p><p>You could take issue with the word &quot;Modern&quot;, though. It might be&nbsp;a joke, seeing as the book takes as its&nbsp;starting point <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2002/nov/03/cricket.features1" title="">the Bodyline series</a> of&nbsp;1932-33. It&nbsp;also has a typeface whose size is friendly to the eyesight of the middle-aged (although this results in&nbsp;a&nbsp;physical object that will not be friendly to their incipient arthritis), and is illustrated by&nbsp;ancient cricket cartoons from Punch, some of which are actually quite funny. There is a foreword by&nbsp;&quot;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/john-major" title="">John Major</a> KG CH&quot;, which reads pretty much as you'd imagine.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/13/cricket-modern-anthology-review-jonathan-agnew">Continue reading...</a>Sport and leisurePaperbacksCricketSportBooksCultureTue, 13 May 2014 06:30:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/13/cricket-modern-anthology-review-jonathan-agnewEmpics SportFitting centrepiece … many will like the excerpt from Mike Brearley (right) about winning the Ashes in 1981. Photograph: Empics SportEmpics SportFitting centrepiece … many will like the excerpt from Mike Brearley (right) about winning the Ashes in 1981. Photograph: Empics SportNicholas Lezard2014-05-13T06:30:02ZLuck by Ed Smith – reviewhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/23/luck-by-ed-smith-review
Smith's elegant book reminds us that success takes more than hard work – it can simply come down to chance<p>In Tom Campbell's pleasing novel <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/19/fold-rom-campbell-review" title=""><em>Fold</em></a> there's a character who is fond of the aspirational sporting slogan most often attributed to Gary Player: &quot;The more I practice, the luckier I get.&quot; It is one of the more dispiriting slogans of our times (and indeed, the character who lives by it is&nbsp;a most unpleasant person); we also have Malcolm Gladwell's <em>Outliers</em>, whose core message is that the more&nbsp;work you put into something, the&nbsp;more successful you'll be.</p><p>This may sound like a statement of&nbsp;the obvious. But there is more to&nbsp;success than hard work and application, and we should be grateful to Ed Smith for pointing it out in this brief but elegant and resonant book.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/23/luck-by-ed-smith-review">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureSport and leisureTue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/23/luck-by-ed-smith-reviewALLSPORT, UK/ALLSPORTArchetypal sportsman … Geoff Boycott, on the way to his 100th first-class century, refused to believe in luck. Photograph: ALLSPORT, UK/ALLSPORTNicholas Lezard2013-04-23T09:00:01ZThe Top 100 Cricketers of All Time by Christopher Martin-Jenkins | Book reviewhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/08/top-100-cricketers-martin-jenkins
Nicholas Lezard on heroes on and off the cricket pitch<p>The first thing the cricket fan will do on getting hold of this book is to check the top five. We aficionados love a good argument, and there is huge scope for disagreement in a list of this kind. So, the top five: Bradman, WG Grace, Sobers, Warne and Hobbs. Actually, you know what? I don't really have any argument with that, although it is hard on Muralitharan, who has taken more wickets than Warne but comes in only at number 13. But then this isn't just about statistics.</p><p>It is, of course, an absurd and impossible task to rank 100 cricketers like&nbsp;this; who is to say whether Ted Dexter (75) is better than Allan Donald (83)? And there are two and a half pages of uninterrupted names of cricketers Christopher Martin-Jenkins has regretfully had to leave out. Bosanquet, who invented the googly, D'Oliveira, who changed sporting history, Frank Tyson, Andy Roberts, Derek Underwood, Godfrey Evans, Rodney Marsh . . . these are all plausible candidates.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/08/top-100-cricketers-martin-jenkins">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureCricketSportSport and leisurePaperbacksFri, 07 May 2010 23:14:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/08/top-100-cricketers-martin-jenkinsNicholas Lezard2010-05-07T23:14:33ZReview: Unplayable by Simon Raehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/18/unplayable-simon-rae-review
<p>I write this in some discomfort, with bleeding fingertips, my nails having been chewed well past the quicks following England's nerve-wracking draw against the Australians in the first Test. If you are reading this on the day of publication, you will, if you lean your head in the direction of NW8, be able to hear the Australians spanking us all over the park at Lord's. It is, clearly, time to withdraw into the world of fantasy.</p><p>And what better fantasy than this? Young Tom Marlin, his shoulder rebuilt after a bone-crunching tackle from two school bullies, suddenly finds, come the cricket season, that he is able to bowl, at will, unplayable, wicket-taking deliveries. Although new to the game, and therefore clueless as to its nuances (and indeed most of its rules), he immediately becomes indispensable to his school team; but he bowls so freakishly well, despite his &quot;frog in a blender&quot; action, that soon he is playing, despite his tender years, for his county. Meanwhile, in the wider world, England are taking a hammering from the Aussies in the current Ashes series. Dare the selectors make the most outrageous decision in the history of the game and get someone who appears to be around 13 years old into the national team? Just read on ...</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/18/unplayable-simon-rae-review">Continue reading...</a>Sport and leisureBooksCulturePaperbacksFri, 17 Jul 2009 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/18/unplayable-simon-rae-reviewNicholas Lezard2009-07-17T23:01:00ZPaperback choice: Apr 5http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview23
Joe Humphreys' Foul Play tackles sport's failings, says Nicholas Lezard<p><strong>Foul Play: What's Wrong With Sport</strong></p><p>by Joe Humphreys</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview23">Continue reading...</a>BooksSportSport and leisureCulturePaperbacksSat, 05 Apr 2008 10:41:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview23Nicholas Lezard2008-04-05T10:41:02Z